Overall BOP position reverses to a surplus of $467 million in February

March 19, 2019

The overall balance of payments (BOP) yielded a surplus of $467 million in February, a reversal of the $429 million BOP deficit in the same month last year, the Bangko Sentral ng Pilipinas (BSP) said Tuesday.

Inflows stemmed mainly from the BSP’s foreign exchange operations, national government’s net foreign currency deposits, and BSP’s income from its investments abroad.

These were partially offset by the payments by the national government for its foreign exchange obligations during the month in review. On a cumulative basis, the BOP position for the period January – February posted a surplus of $3.17 billion, a turnaround from the $961 million BOP deficit in the first two months of 2018.

The surplus may be attributed partly to remittance inflows from overseas Filipinos in January and net inflows of foreign portfolio investments (net BSP-registered transactions based on custodian banks’ reports) for the first two months of the year, which was a reversal of the net outflows reported in January – February 2018.

The reported BOP position reflected the final gross international reserves  level of $82.78 billion as of end-February.  

At this level, the gross international reserves represent a more than ample liquidity buffer and is equivalent to 7.3 months’ worth of imports of goods and payments of services and primary income.

It is also equivalent to 5.2 times the country’s short-term external debt based on original maturity and 3.6 times based on residual maturity.  DMS